50mm f1.8 technique advice

freefall

freefall

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hi all. i'll be using a canon eos 400d and a 50mm f1.8.

I will be taking pics of drunken friends on singstar in my living room.the lighting will be less than perfect but I reckon that f1.8 will have no probs when taking shots of their heads and shoulders.

but, I will be wanting to take the odd shot of everyone in the room. now, everyone will not be lined up and they will be at different distances to the lens. my question is:

if I take a group shot at f1.8 (so not to use flash) then will there be random bits of depth of field on some of my friends?

or shall I go lower than 1.8 and maybe crank up the iso?

oh please not iso 1600! (shudders)
 
Tbh unless the lighting's very good you'll probably find yourself using f/1.8 and ISO 1600 from the offset.

The 50 will be good for head/shoulder shots, providing you got the room to get far enough back and get everything in.

Unless you've got a palatial residence, I think you'll struggle to get an indoor group shot with 50mm on a crop body; and even if you do I think the dof at f/1.8 will be too shallow to get more than one row of people sharp..
 
Hi,

I use one of these a lot and love it. At F1.8 the dof is literally a few inches, to get everyone in focus you will have to use a much higher Aperture. Also Ramp up your ISO to 1600 (I use 3200 on my 20D but I dont think you can unlock that option on yours, you may be able to, look in your custom functions in the menu).

I also find it a little soft at the 1.8 end, I normal got for around 2.8.

You will probably be limited to tight crops anyway as it is around 80mm on your body so to get someone completely in you will have to stand way back.

Have fun, its a cracker of a lens :)
 
thanks for the advice everyone. I do have a really long living room which helps. need to test out this lens more too. I thought I might be pushing it with the dof but it looks like i'll be REALLY pushing it. the few shot's i've got of the kids faces with it so far are impressive. plus it does seem a bit soft sometimes.
 
It is likely to be bit soft wide open
 
Try it at f/2 or f/2.2, it is much sharper there (or at least mine is), and the DOF/light is much better than the 3.5 of the kit lens
 
Uh-oh... You might have to use the onboard flash (ugh). F1.8 gives a really shallow dof, and anything over 400iso on the 400d is pretty noisy. I reckon I'd have to use around f5 on my copy to get what you're looking for. Also I find it hunts around for focus in lowish light
 
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